The Mirror of Erised
by WritingPen
Summary: It's Christmas Eve. Wait, no. The clock strikes twelve. It's Christmas Day. A short but important moment of Harry and Teddy, during Teddy's first year at Hogwarts.


**Yeah. It's been a while. And I'm uploading a Christmas fanfic, in August. One that was written in the hours before being published here.**

**It's an idea that's been floating around in my mind for a while. I hope you like it~**

**And no. I'm still not JKR. If I was, I wouldn't be half broke.**

**DISCLAIMER:  
>Characters and things you recognize (also mentioned in AN at the end) belongs to the Queen. Yes, the one known as Jo Rowling.**

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><p>Harry couldn't sleep. Over the last years, those nights had been few. But he couldn't sleep.<p>

He'd been up all night, finishing off some paperwork, pausing only to put the kids to bed.

He'd had a late night snack with Lily, who'd been in bed with a cold all day, but now that she felt better she wouldn't sleep. Eventually, he'd put her to bed as well.

It was almost midnight. Ten years earlier, midnight hadn't been very late. Over the last years, that had changed. Midnight was indeed late.

Thinking back, he remembered his old life. In all honesty, he preferred the life he had now.

Amazing wife, three kids, four with Teddy… Teddy. He was spending his Christmas as Hogwarts, because Andromeda had been called in for surgery over the Christmas Holidays.

Harry remembered his first Christmas at Hogwarts. It'd been amazing.

Stretching in the couch, the couch that held so many memories and would hold many more, just as the clock turned 12, he had an idea. A crazy one. The kind of idea he hadn't had in years.

O-O-O-O-O

Teddy couldn't sleep. He was thinking, about his grandmother and the surgery, and about all his friends, going home to their families over the Holidays. Truth to be told, he was a bit jealous.

But, he'd have a good time at Hogwarts too. It'd be nice. How couldn't it, with all the Christmas Trees and the feeling of being home? Home. Hogwarts was his home, but it was a second one. He missed the home where he grew up, with Grandma Andy. The Sundays at the Burrow. Pranking the adults together with Victoire. He missed her. And he missed the other kids too.

The stairs creaked. Footsteps came closer and closer, but Teddy didn't take much notice. Older students were often up at night. He'd been up himself, setting a prank.

The door opened.

"Wrong dorm, next floor." Teddy muttered, thinking it was the guy in seventh year, who often came back late at night, just drunk enough to confuse the dorms.

"Nah, I think this is the right one." A familiar voice said, closing the door and walking over to Teddy.

"Harry?" Teddy sat up.

"Yup. Merry Christmas, Teddles." Harry said, sitting down next to his godson.

"It's not Christmas until-"

"It's past midnight."

"Oh. Okay. Merry Christmas, Harry."

"I've got a gift for you."

"Like, now?"

"Yes, now."

"I should be asleep."

"Well, you're not. Get up, fetch a robe and put some shoes on. The floors are cold this time of year."

"If I get caught…" Teddy said, but did as he was told.

"I'll take the blame. I almost wouldn't mind a detention… it's been a while."

"Not for me…" Teddy muttered, tying his shoelaces. "Where are we going?"

"That's the adventure." Harry answered, shoving Teddy outside.

Walking down the stairs, Harry pulled up an old piece of parchment. He tapped it with his wand, mumbling something, and still not stopping he lit his wand to have a proper look.

"What's that?" Teddy asked, following Harry out of the Common Room.

"You'll see." Harry said, and led the way.

O-O-O-O-O

15 minutes later, after getting lost once or twice, Harry finally stopped.

"This is it."

"You said that at the last door too."

"I was wrong then, but this is the door. Come on." Harry opened the door, and invited Teddy inside.

It was a disused classroom. Dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, but also propped up against the wall was… a mirror.

There was an inscription carved around the top: _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

"Go. Have a look." Harry said, and Teddy moved forward.

He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself screaming. He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed – for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.

But the room was empty, except for Harry, who gave him a nod to look again. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror.

There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him were at least ten others, but two figures were sharper and closer than the others.

Teddy looked behind him, seeing Harry smiling, but no one else was there. Looking in the mirror again, he moved his hands through the air where the two closest would've been standing.

He recognized them. It was his parents.

His mother, with bubblegum pink hair, and purple eyes. Tears were running down her cheeks, though she was smiling widely. In the mirror, she put an arm around him.

His father, looking very grey next to his wife, was smiling too. He had lots of scars covering his face, and his hair was dirty blond and almost grey. A tear fell down his cheeks as he laughed at his son's expression. Teddy's mother playfully hit him, but laughed as well.

Slowly, Teddy turned around again, to face Harry.

"What is this?" he slowly asked.

"This is the Mirror of Erised."

"Is it… magical? What does it do?"

"Think about it. What do you see?"

"I see myself, and… my parents. And in the background, there are more people." Teddy looked at the mirror again. "There's Grandma, and Grandpa Ted. And… are those my other grandparents?"

"Probably. I can't see them." Harry shrugged.

"But if you stand right here…" Teddy stood aside.

"It doesn't work that way."

"Then how does it work? Does it show your family? So, if you stand over here, you can see your family, but I can't see it?" he looked at the reflection once again.

"Maybe. That Christmas when I was eleven, I found this room and this mirror. Just like you, I saw my parents, and other relatives I never knew of. I brought Ron to see it too. Guess what he saw?"

"His family?" Teddy guessed.

"No. He saw himself, way older, having achieved everything his brothers achieved when they were in school." Harry remembered with a smile.

"It shows the future?"

"Nope. Ron became prefect, but that's about it. He never made Head Boy or Quidditch Captain. Though I'm sure he could've." Harry grinned.

"Then… it shows what you wish for?"

"It shows you your heart's deepest desire. I never knew my parents, and in my heart I've always wished I knew them. Ron was the youngest, with five older brothers' who'd already done everything to be done. He thought that people expected him to do all that too, but if he did it wouldn't be anything special because his older brothers had done it before him. I think he simply wanted to be appreciated for something that hadn't been done before."

"He did a lot of things with you, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did. He fulfilled that dream; just not the way he thought when we were eleven."

"So, I see my parents… because it's what I wish for the most?" Teddy stared at his parents again.

"Exactly." Harry answered.

"What do you see, Harry?" Teddy moved aside, pulling Harry to the spot where he'd just stood.

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks." Harry easily lied.

Teddy looked oddly at him.

"One can never have enough socks," said Harry. "Another Christmas has come, and I doubt I'll get a single pair. I never do. People will insist on giving me books, or Quidditch supplies. I don't even play anymore. And I hardly have time for books."

O-O-O-O-O

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Teddy that Harry might not have been quite truthful but then, he thought, as he showed his friend's cat off his pillow, it had been quite a personal question.

O-O-O-O-O

Harry lay in is bed, still unable to sleep.

By now, it was past one and almost two.

Smiling, he thought about the night's events.

He'd known what Teddy would see. And remembering his own discovery of the mirror, and the midnight talk with Dumbledore a few nights later, he grinned. History surely did repeat itself sometimes.

He hoped that Teddy hadn't seen the surprise on his face when he'd looked in the mirror. He had been surprised. He hadn't thought about the mirror in years, and even though he knew what he'd see, it came as a surprise.

_Let me explain._ _The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?_

The voice of a forgotten memory floated through Harry's head.

"Yeah, that helps." Harry whispered into the darkness. "I'm the happiest man on earth."

For he had only seen shadows of his parents, nowhere near as clear as himself.

O-O-O-O-O

The next morning, Teddy would wake up to find a mountain of presents from the Weasleys and Potters. But the best present would indeed be the one Harry had put there just before he left.

_This was what I found on Christmas Day when I was eleven. It was, indeed, my first real Christmas gift, and definitely one of the best._

_It is time to pass it on to you._

_Use it well. Merry Christmas._

_Harry_

_O-O-O-O-O_

30 years later, Harry Potter would walk down the stairs to celebrate Christmas with his family and all the grandchildren.

Watching the children open their gifts had always been the best time of the year, Harry thought, and it would always be. The excitement, shouts of joy and rushed hugs before getting on with new presents.

He watched his youngest grandchild trying to unwrap a gift, and chuckling he listened to the shouts breaking out as one of the boys realized that the two year old had chewed up his present.

"Grandpa, this is for you!"

"For me? To Harry, from Teddy. Why, it seems it's for me indeed." Harry smiled.

"Oh, what could it be?" Ginny teased him.

"Let's find out, eh?"

Out fell a pair of woolen socks.

The adults laughed.

"Seriously, dad? Again? Why do you keep giving him socks?" Ted's oldest son wondered.

"Because one can never have too many socks, son." Ted laughed.

"Yeah, but for 30 years… isn't it getting just a little bit too old?" Victoire sighed.

Harry and Teddy just shared a knowing smile.

.

Many years ago, Harry had told Teddy the full story of how he discovered the mirror and it's secret.

Many years later, on his death bed, Harry would tell Teddy what he had really seen in the mirror.

And always, the words will remain true:

**_I show not your face but your heart's desire_**

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><p><strong>Continued Disclaimer:<br>Yes, alot of the Mirror-scene was actually copied from the book. I simply changed names, and did some cutting and added a few words every here and there, but it's mainly just as JKR wrote it.  
>I know, in the book the mirror-scene was AFTER Christmas. But I wanted it to be like this. And I wanted to give Teddy the cloak, just as it was given to Harry.<br>And yes. Years later Albus would wake up on Christmas Morning, and a note would fall out of the cloak, just as the times before.**

**Story is 1'801 words, three pages in word, written on a cold night in August.**

**Don't forget to be awesome, and as always: Best Wishes~**


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